India’s sojourn down under may have been a cricketing “disaster” so far, but it has been a godsend to the sore ears of Test match fans.

Aching from the impositions of half-ticket cricketers dusting up the cliches on Doordarshan and Neo Sports as commentators, thesoothing Star Sports‘ team of the incomparable Ian Chappell and Alan Wilkins, and Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Michael Slater, has been just what the doctor ordered.

As “right-hand leg break batsman” V.V.S. Laxman stroked a few stanzas of pure poetry on the second day of the second Test, Harsha Bhogle came up with a gem in the run of play:

“Rahul Dravid is charging for a third run, but V.V.S. Laxman, who is a part-time traffic constable in Hyderabad, puts his hand up and says no.”

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Churumuri can say what it likes about “half-ticket” cricketers but commentators, but do they provide their moments of enlightenment.

I remember Mohinder Amarnath repeatedly calling Paul Adams “Paul Adam”. A purist who had heard enough of this, turned around and said, “Only Jimmy Amarnath knows that Paul Adams is one person. That’s why he always refers to him in the singular.”